Alright, we all know what time of year it is – with the holidays coming up and actual things happening being kind of on hold until we all nurse our New Years’ hangover, a writer really only has two options: lists and think pieces. And if you’ve read the heading (which, if you haven’t, why are you here?) you know what this is gonna be. We’re talking about the upcoming Flesh and Blood set The Hunted.
So while we know a few things, everything is just right for a bit of baseless speculation and wish listing. Just keep in mind that this is, at best, gonna be based on the flimsiest bits of evidence I can muster. Alright? Let’s go!
Flesh and Blood’s New Set The Hunted – What We Know So Far
We know quite a few things, actually. We know that The Hunted will feature three classes, Ninja, Warrior, and Assassin, and it will continue the story set up in Uprising. From what I can tell, Dromai, Ash Artist is Empress now and two of the Dracai, Fang and Cindra, are out to hunt down Arakni, Huntsman, who unceremoniously murdered the only just introduced Emperor back in Dynasty.
Rest in Peace, sweet prince
Beyond what we’ve been told of the story front though, Legend Story Studios has blessed us with a handful of spoilers to tide us over. So let’s take a look at those and see if we can find something to base our baseless speculations on, starting with the heroes and working down from there.
Warrior Heroes and Cards in The Hunted
Fang, Dracai of Blades is this set’s Warrior hero, and looking at his hero ability will clue you into the theme of the set:
It’s dagger time, baby
Yes, The Hunted is all about daggers, and so it makes sense that the most weapon-centric class in Flesh and Blood is following suit. Beyond the somewhat strange image of a Warrior in full plate brandishing twin knives though, Fang’s hero ability underscores two other mechanics in The Hunted: Fealty tokens and marked heroes.
Being marked does not actually confer any effects by itself, but it creates a condition for other cards effects to work. Fealty, in turn, is a bit of a nothingburger as well, “only” allowing you to turn the next card you play Draconic. This is actually pretty important for the new cards though, as quite a few simple class cards offer additional effects while Draconic.
Looking beyond the basic set mechanics, the new class cards show off what The Hunted has in store for Warrior players. So far, we can identify a main theme: Stances.
These form a cycle, one Stance per pitch color, that allow you to set up some kind of effect for your weapon attacks on the following turn. This is our second massive hint that Fang will play differently from other Warriors, looking to set up big combo turns with his weapons. Reminiscent of Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn, but less reliant on one specific card and the charge mechanic.
The two other Warrior cards previewed so far are both attack reactions, a staple of the Warrior class up to this point, so it’s not all new with Fang – he’s just looking to get into a different groove than his class co-stars.
Jagged Edge red is a pretty straightforward utility piece, but Long-Whisker Loyalty red gives us another hint that Fang is looking to go seriously wide, a breath of fresh air from Dorinthea Ironsong, who has to work pretty hard to go as wide as this new card suggests.
Ninja Heroes and Cards in The Hunted
Fang’s design makes him resemble a Ninja hero, and yet, The Hunted has another Ninja in store for us: Cindra, Dracai of Retribution.
Her first ability mirrors Fang’s, but her second ability differentiates her from her Warrior cousin. She’s looking to be based around destroying your weapons, similar to cards like Flick Knives, Stab Wound, or Hurl.
This is design space the Ninja and Assassin classes have previously shared in Outsiders, and The Hunted is so far looking like it’s going to repeat that set’s structure. Although, notably, the Ninja cards we have seen so far have all been single class cards.
These three basic cards (Art of the Dragon: Claw, Art of the Dragon: Fire, Art of the Dragon: Scale), as well as their supercharged cousin Art of the Dragon: Blood point toward one obvious use of Fealty tokens so far. If you can get a hit in against your opponent, you can use your Fealty to turn on the extra effects from your dragon arts. And the other Ninja card revealed so far, Blood Runs Deep, seems to continue this trend of caring about Draconic chain links, that echoes Fai, Rising Rebellion.
Notably, this majestic combines the Flick Knives mechanic with the Draconic chain link marker, and it points toward another effect that the Ninja cards in The Hunted might care about: your dagger attacks having hit.
Assassin Heroes and Cards in The Hunted
Hooo boy, here we go. The preview season for The Hunted has thrown us a major story curveball that probably has some card design implications as well.
Yeah, I got nothing folks.
Just… wow. What even is this. 1337 speak on a card name? Thanks by the way, this was awful to type out for the card image generator. Chaos as a talent? And all this for a slightly differently worded version of Arakni, Solitary Confinement. There’s something going on with Arakni beyond the mere story fact that apparently they are some kind of… cyber eldritch abomination… thing?
The lore blurb for their previous incarnation mentions ties to Metrix and The Pits, so perhaps they’re some kind of virus given fleshy form in an experiment? Or maybe they’re a sentient Death Grips song. I’m seriously stumped here, but this reveal has me incredibly excited. Even if the 1337 speak makes me feel incredibly old.
To add to this – and you’re gonna have to take my word for this or watch TCGtalks YouTube video on the previews since I can’t for the life of me find an image for this – multiple new versions for Arakni, all with different titles, artwork and, presumably, hero abilities, have been teased. So what’s going on? I sure don’t know.
What I do know is that we also got a handful of Assassin cards, though LSS has been comparably tight-lipped with whatever is going on with Arakni. We only have three Assassin cards from The Hunted so far: Defang the Dragon red, Tarantula Toxin red, and Extinguish the Flames red.
And these are doing precisely nothing to help us further understand what Assassin is doing in this set, besides the two class mechanics we have so far returning, Contract and Stealth. To top this off, two of these cards seem like they are designed specifically for limited play. Unless the two other new heroes are hilariously overpowered and single-handedly take over the meta, I don’t see myself playing cards that call them out by name in a constructed format.
Let’s Get Speculating Then
So with all that out of the way, let’s start speculating! And just for added spice, I will sort these predictions in order of how confident I am in making them, from least to most. Starting with one that is not so much a prediction as a gut-feeling I’m getting.
Warrior Might be the Odd Class Out
Maybe this is subjective. In fact, this is most certainly purely subjective, but I feel like the dagger theme isn’t really doing anything for the Warrior class. Fang looks like a Ninja, his ability reads like a Ninja, and even the concept of Stances, Auras that you set up for your next turn, is something that Ninja has dabbled in (see Mindstate of Tiger and Blessing of Qi).
Now granted, we know next to nothing about the set so far, but it seems like LSS was really excited about the dagger theme and just decided to lump in the most likely class to care about weapons to complete the trifecta. It’s not impossible to thread the needle here, design-wise, which is why this is the prediction I’m least confident on, but LSS certainly has their challenge cut out for them if they want to make Fang feel like a Warrior (more so if they want the new cards to be playable by literally any other Warrior but Fang).
Arakni Will Be Shapeshifting
This is only on slightly less shaky ground than the one previous, but I think all the new Arakni hero cards only make sense, if we get some kind of way for the main Arakni to shapeshift between them. Maybe that will translate to them being cards in your sideboard that you can pick and choose based on the matchup? Assassin flavorfully makes use of the sideboard in choosing their equipment already, and this would be another slam-dunk in that vein.
LSS Will Set Up a New Dromai
LSS has recently flexed their design muscles on two new Illusionist heroes, an updated Prism in Prism, Awakener of Sol and a brand new hero in Enigma, Ledger of Ancestry. Dromai has recently hit Living Legend, has a strong story tie to the region of Volcor and the goings-on in The Hunted. If you put two and two together, I believe we are due a new Dromai.
Now, this set seems a bit to stuffed for her to be teased in any meaningful way (though there might be a new Draconic Illusionist card in the expansion slot for The Hunted), but I think we won’t have to wait long. Perhaps LSS will follow up The Hunted with a Dynasty-style small supplemental set and we will get our new, Royal Dromai there?
The Hunted Will Be a Multiclass Set
I’m torn on this last prediction, even though I’m putting it as most confident. Usually, these kinds of things are included in the announcement; Outsiders was touted as a multiclass set right from the start, after all. And so far, we haven’t heard anything in that vein from LSS for The Hunted.
But it just makes too much sense. Assassin and Ninja have already been a multiclass pair in Outsiders, and they both have some kind of playstyle overlap with Warrior in concept: Assassins are deceptively tanky and heard to hit, just like Warriors, with a bevvy of cards that block for three and good armor block value (though in a different vein, with Assassin re-equipping their equipments), while Ninjas have a secondary design theme of caring about their weapons (okay, this one is quite a bit more flimsy than the other one). And furthermore, all three classes are looking to outplay their opponent on the combat chain with a graceful dance of reactions.
That’s All, Folks!
And there you have it! Four bits of baseless speculation about The Hunted. While none of these are guaranteed, what is guaranteed is that The Hunted is looking to be a wild ride, even beyond the obvious insanity of the Arakni implications – I still am not entirely over the fact that there is a dual wielding dagger-only Warrior in this set.
Keep your eyes peeled for preview season and make sure to join us for our set review. Until then, happy hunting!
